The scent of blood lingered in the air.
Rot. Smoke. Burnt flesh.
Kai crouched in the corner of a crumbling alley, his breath shallow and ragged. Saffron City's southern slums had never been a safe place, but tonight… tonight was something else.
A Tide had hit.
He didn't know when it started—only that the screams came first. Then the crashing. The roars. Pokémon, dozens of them, flooding the streets like a pack of rabid animals. People didn't get warnings here. There were no sirens, no League announcements. Slums weren't worth protecting.
He clenched his jaw, peering through a crack in the wall. A Mightyena paced by in the distance, its snout soaked with crimson. A body dragged behind it—a man, half-crushed, twitching. The predator yanked the corpse like a toy before disappearing behind a shattered fence.
His pulse thundered in his ears.
This wasn't a world of dreams. Not the Pokémon world he used to imagine.
This world was cruel.
And he knew, because he'd died in it once already.
Kai remembered Earth.
The posters. The games. The anime marathons. He'd known every region, every starter, every Elite Four.
Back then, Pokémon meant hope. Friendship. Possibility.
Then he died.
A bus crash. He hadn't even seen it coming. One moment he'd been walking home from his part-time job, the next… darkness.
He'd woken up in a new body, sixteen years old again, born into a world that looked like the one he'd loved—except it wasn't.
Not really.
Here, Trainers didn't start at ten. Poké Balls weren't handed out with a smile and a license. Most kids never touched a Pokémon in their lives. Getting a starter wasn't a rite of passage—it was a privilege. A political favor. Or a bribe.
If you didn't have money, power, or bloodlines?
You had nothing.
Kai tried to survive. He worked jobs. He begged. He watched others rise through battles or inheritance. But for him—no connections, no Pokémon, no system—life was slow, desperate.
Then, he died again.
He didn't even remember the name of the town. Some godforsaken place on the border of Kanto and Johto. Bandits. A stolen delivery. Wrong place, wrong time. A Growlithe pack descended on the wagon. Blood. Screaming. His second death was slower.
When he woke again… something was different.
His memories were clearer. More stable. Like the fracture of rebirth had solidified the pieces.
And something else had come with them.
He felt it for the first time three days ago.
A flicker of thought—almost instinctual. Not a voice. Not words on a screen. Just knowledge. Sharp. Unnatural.
He'd glanced at a Meowth scavenging from a trash heap.
Suddenly, his mind whispered:
_______________________________________
Species: Meowth
Level: 14
Potential: Light Orange
Moves Detected: Scratch [72%], Growl [100%], Bite [64%]
Gender: Male | Age: 3 years | Status: Malnourished | Item: None
_______________________________________
He had blinked, staggered.
No Pokédex. No AR interface. Just data—precise, natural, as if it had always been part of his brain.
It wasn't like a game. It didn't feel digital. It felt… organic. Deep. A subconscious process, just below conscious thought. The more he focused, the more he understood.
And now, hiding in the alley, as the Tide raged around him, it surged again.
A shape skittered over a rooftop.
His heart jumped.
His mind whispered:
________________________________________
Species: Raticate (Urban Variant)
Level: 30
Potential: Dark Yellow
Gender: Female | Age: 4
Moves: Hyper Fang [68%], Crunch [91%], Quick Attack [78%], Sucker Punch [39%]
Condition: Frenzied – Tide Trigger
Recommendation: Evade. High risk of fatal injury.
________________________________________
"Great," Kai muttered under his breath. "Absolutely great."
He didn't have a Pokémon. Hell, he barely had a full meal in the past two days.
His only weapon was his brain—and the strange ability that had attached itself to it.
He tightened his grip on the broken pipe in his hand and shifted his feet slowly.
Don't panic. Don't run unless it sees you.
Another roar echoed across the rooftops.
Something heavy landed just meters away.
Not the Raticate.
Bigger.
The sound of crackling electricity flooded the alley.
He peeked around the edge of a dumpster and saw it.
A Luxray.
Black-furred, eyes glowing with violent static. Blood coated its chest. Its claws sparked.
________________________________________
Species: Luxray
Level: 52
Potential: Dark Green
Status: Alpha of Current Tide Wave
Condition: Hunting
Moves: Thunder Fang [Maxed], Wild Charge [87%], Roar [62%], Discharge [51%]
Warning: Lethality confirmed. Do not engage.
________________________________________
No problem, he thought grimly. I couldn't fight it if I wanted to.
Then the Luxray turned—eyes locking with his.
And the world froze.
He ran.
There was no choice. He ducked under beams, scrambled over trash, skidded around a collapsed fire escape. Electricity flashed behind him, turning concrete into shrapnel. Debris exploded into the air.
His mind screamed: Run. Jump. Roll. Left. Right. Duck. NOW.
It wasn't just instinct anymore. The system—if that's what it was—had grown sharper. Faster. It read the enemy's posture, calculated angles, pressure shifts, and his own muscle tension.
And it still wasn't enough.
A blast of Discharge ripped through a rusted car to his left, sending him flying.
He crashed into a fence, groaned, and crawled on his elbows.
The Luxray stalked forward slowly now—no rush. No fear.
Kai's vision blurred.
He didn't want to die again.
Not yet.
Not now.
Then—headlights.
A black van tore through the alley, tires screeching.
The Luxray turned. Too late.
A Poké Ball rocketed from the van window.
It exploded in light.
A massive steel beast emerged—eyes glowing red.
________________________________________
Species: Aggron
Level: 61
Potential: Light Purple
Command: Engage. No restraint.
________________________________________
Aggron roared and charged, slamming into the Luxray with a thunderous impact.
Kai blinked through the smoke.
A man stepped out of the van. Older. Pale eyes. Red 'R' stitched into his coat collar.
"Still breathing?" he asked.
Kai managed a nod.
The man tossed him something. A canteen.
"You've got instincts. Surviving a Tide with no partner? Impressive."
Another figure joined the first. A younger woman, arms crossed.
"We're recruiting. Not for the League."
Kai didn't need to ask who they were.
Rocket.
Not the cartoon villains from the shows he used to watch.
Here, they were real. Organized. Underground. Ruthless.
"I don't have a choice," he rasped, coughing. "No license. No Pokémon. No future."
The man's lip curled slightly. "Good. You understand."
The woman gestured to the van.
"We're headed to an island off the map. Training. Tests. Reality. You make it through? You get power. And maybe something more."
Kai stared at the open door.
Inside, shadows. Danger. Opportunity.
He stepped forward.
"Alright," he said quietly. "I'm in."
They didn't tell him the island's name.
Only that it had once been a League facility—long since abandoned, repurposed by Rocket.
A place where the weak died, and the strong rose.
Kai sat in the back of the van, flanked by two other recruits. One was silent. The other—a guy with tattoos and a feral grin—kept tapping his foot.
"Another freshblood, huh?" the man muttered. "They send us more and more these days."
Kai didn't answer.
He stared out the window.
The last thing he saw as they drove away was the Luxray's broken body, curled in a pool of blood and sparks.
Its eyes were still open.
He didn't feel triumphant.
Only cold.
He had died twice in this world.
He would not die a third time.
And as the van disappeared into the dark, the system within him pulsed again—quiet, awake, and waiting.
———————————————————
Integration Level: 7%
Knowledge Sync Active
Access Expanding with Learning
Potential for Growth: Unknown
———————————————————
Kai closed his eyes.
Let the world burn.
He would survive it.
Or shatter it.